Even the most passionate and optimistic of Everton fans would now have to admit that their Champions League dreams might have just come to an end.

They put in an abject performance against Southampton at St Marys Stadium - and they really did put the boot in on themselves.

Own goals from Antolin Alcaraz and Seamus Coleman - both horrific pieces of defending - proved costly and if Arsenal, as expected, defeat the lacklustre Newcastle United on Monday night they will be four points clear with two games left in the season.

Poor performances were put in all over the pitch - as Everton struggled to get a foothold on the game.

Gerard Deulofeu struggled to find space, Coleman had perhaps his worst game of the season and Romelu Lukaku was anonymous up top - marked out of the game by the magnificent Dejan Lovren.

But if Everton have anything to celebrate this game once again gave them reason to sing the praises of the sensational John Stones.

The former right-back was signed from Barnsley by previous manager David Moyes and Roberto Martinez has turned him into a ball-playing central defender in the absence of Phil Jagielka.

The talented youngster was his usual composed self at the heart of Everton’s defence -happy to take the ball down at his feet and run out of defence - the comparisons with Gerard Pique once again gaining credence.

He has his moments, which is a given when playing at the back in the way he does, but overall he was superb.

At just 19-years-old there is certainly scope for him to become a star of the future - and given the way in which football is lending itself to central defenders who are equally comfortable with the ball at feet as they are winning aerial battles and flying into crunching tackles, there is no wonder why people are tipping him to become a future England international.

Some are even tipping him to make it to Brazil this summer - which might have come to soon for the lad.

But there is no doubt he is in top form.

Here is some Twitter reaction to his performance, the diamond in the rough of an uncharacteristically flat Everton display…

Mathew Nash

I’m Mathew Nash a 27 year old graduate in Sports Studies and I have an insatiable love for sport. With a particularly keen interest for the madcap world of football I have always been known amongst friends as a beacon for bizarre sporting trivia and knowledge. My other passion is for writing and hopefully combining the two will create a superb and entertaining marriage that will create, divide and share opinion.Mathew is a correspondent for the NextGen Series, Ligue 1 and Primeira Liga.